Running is SWEET!

I am back to running and loving life again. Six weeks without any cardio was really a bit much, but I feel like the break was good for me. My morning run was sweet and I felt quite renewed and my toes held up without too much discomfort. Y.E.S.!! I tried to stay focused during my down time and maintained my good eating habits and got leaner in the process. I am physically stronger and I feel like my diet is pretty good. I am trying to lean towards more of a Paleo diet and watching the amount of Gluten that I am ingesting. Experimenting with foods is fun and if I can sleep better and take away my body pain while trying to sleep, life will be even better. I also have some stomach issues that haunt me during my runs, (no pun intended), so maybe I can clear up that issue too.

My brother Wally and I were discussing being focused on our run today. It's funny that we can have all the tools to be the best we can be, but without focus you will not move forward. I am such a scatter-brain, but with my fitness and nutrition, I can remain focused. I am thankful that I am focused on at least one section of my life. I am always wondering what my gift is and if I really have one. I guess I can say the gift of gab and the ability to focus on my body are my two gifts. Hum..... well, better than nothing!

I enjoy reading posts from people who are involved in crossfit. I have never done it, but I hope to experience it one of these days. In the meantime, I am just a lurker and I get inspiration from reading about these crossfitters who thrive on being extraordinary. If everyone could do it, everyone might do it. There is no fun in being ordinary. That's what I like about being an ultrarunner. We are not ordinary runners! We are extraordinary!



While lurking on the Crossfit Portland Girls website, I came across this article about amazing women doing amazing things. It's an article about strong and powerful women. Beautiful women. I think you will agree that this article points to focused women too. Enjoy.



“If I were feeling a little more lawless, I’d gather all the copies of Cosmo and Seventeen, douse them in kerosene, and strike a match. I’d throw in reams of print ads from Calvin Klein and watch with delight as Kate Moss’ stick-thin image was reduced to carbon. I’d add copies of Shape and Runner’s World until the flames reached toward the heavens, and then I’d crank call the editorial desk at Muscle and Fitness until they stopped publishing pictures of women on steroids.I’d get the master tapes of America’s Next Top Model and dub over them with “Nasty Girls”, broadcasting the results on every television station in America. I’d skywrite “CrossFit.com” across the Boston skyline, and gently admonish the hoards of long distance runners trotting along the Charles River—with a bullhorn.I’d take every woman with mass media-induced ideals of beauty, and I’d show them what it really means to be beautiful. Beautiful women are strong and powerful. They are athletes, capable of every feat under the sun. They have muscles, borne of hard work and sweat. They gauge their self-worth through accomplishments, not by the numbers on the bathroom scale. They understand that muscle weighs more than fat, and they love the fact that designer jeans don’t fit over their well-developed quads. They know that high repetitions using light weights is a path to mediocrity, and “toning” is a complete and utter myth. They refuse to succumb to the marketers that prey on insecurity, leaving the pre-packaged diet dinners and fat-burning pills on the shelf to pass their expiration date.Beautiful women train with intensity. The derive self-image from the quality of their work and their ability to excel. They don’t wear makeup to the gym, and they wouldn’t be caught dead with a vinyl pink dumbbell. They move iron, they do pull-ups, they jump, sprint, punch, and kick, and they use the elliptical machine—as a place to hang their jump rope. They spend their weekends in sport, climbing walls, winning races, and running rivers. They laugh as they sprint circles around the unschooled, turning the image-obsessed into bench warmers. Beautiful women don’t care if they’re soaked in sweat and covered in dirt, if their nails are chipped or their hair out of place. They care only about quality of life. Beautiful women are happy, healthy, and strong, and they’re right there beside me, tossing conventional beauty on the ever-growing flames of what used to be.
Be beautiful.

By Jon Glisan